In the nearly four weeks since President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris has been remarkably inaccessible to the press. Despite being the de facto and now definitive Democratic nominee, Harris has granted zero interviews and spoken to the press for a total of 70 seconds. This brief encounter occurred after a rally in Michigan, where she hinted that she might schedule a single interview by the end of the month.
The lack of scrutiny from the press is striking, particularly given the Democrats’ past criticism of former President Donald Trump’s limited engagement with the media. Harris’s evasive behavior suggests that she is relying on the media’s complacency to avoid tough questions about her candidacy.
While some journalists, such as CNN’s John Berman, have pushed back against the Harris campaign’s claims about her schedule, the overall response from the press has been muted. The Washington Post editorial board has called on Harris to speak with journalists, but her campaign has shown no signs of obliging.
Instead, Harris appears to be relying on the media’s tendency to promote the Democratic Party line, which has portrayed her as a strong candidate despite her lack of national primary votes in either 2020 or 2024. The media has also downplayed Harris’s radical policy positions, including her support for nationalizing a significant portion of the economy and her role in presiding over a surge in illegal immigration and high inflation rates.
Harris’s strategy of avoiding the press may be effective in the short term, but it raises concerns about the democratic process. With fewer than 100 days until Election Day, Harris is running out the clock, and the media’s complicity in this approach undermines the principles of transparency and accountability.
The upcoming Democratic National Convention will likely provide Harris with another opportunity to avoid the press, but she will eventually face scrutiny from voters. Early voting begins in key states such as Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Minnesota in mid-September, and Harris will need to confront the press and the public before then.
